tngri
The highest spirits who inhabit the sky. There are ninety-nine, divided into two groups: those of the east (zuni) and those of the west (baruni). The fifty-five western tngri are called sagani tngri, "white tngri," and are benevolent. The forty-four eastern tngri are called kharan tngri, "black tngri," and are considered to be evil.
In addition, there is one, called Segen Sedbek, who is the border marker (obo) between the two, although he is actually a western tngri.
The Buryats of Balagansk regard Khan Tiurmas Tngri as the chief of the western tngri and Ata Ulan Tngri as the chief of the eastern tngri; among the Buryats of Kudinsk, Zayan Sagan Tngri is said to be the chief of the western tngri and Khimkhir Bogdo Tngri the chief of the eastern tngri.
See also Tngri.
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References
Sources
- Czaplicka, M. A. (1914). Shamanism in Siberia. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Eliade, Mircea. (1964). Shamanism. Bollingen Series no. 76. Princeton: Princeton University Press, p. 9.
- Holmberg, Uno. (1927). Finno-Ugric, Siberian. vol. 4, Mythology of All Races. Boston: Marshall Jones Company, p. 391.
- Pettazonni, Raffaele. (1956). The All-Knowing God, trans. H. J. Rose. London: Methuen, p. 262.